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Bioethicist Peter Singer will speak on “Changing Ethics of Life and Death” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, in Oechsle Hall room 224.
“From the acceptance of brain death to questions about the use of embryos for research, advances in science and technology have forced us to reconsider the ethic of the sanctity of human life,” Singer says. In his talk he will argue that “the traditional view is indefensible” and make suggestions about how it should be changed.
Sponsored by the Ethics Project and the Office of the Dean of Studies, Singer’s talk will be preceded by a reception and dinner at McKelvy House. For information, contact June Thompson in the Office of the Dean of Studies, x5521.
Singer holds dual appointments as Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University and Laureate Professor in the University of Melbourne’s Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. He held various positions at Monash University from 1977 to 1995, including, most recently, co-director of the Institute for Ethics and Public Policy.
Singer is included in Time magazine’s listing of the “world’s 100 most influential people” (April 18, 2005). He was founding president of the International Association of Bioethics and founding co-editor of the association’s journal, Bioethics. His 1975 book Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for our Treatment of Animals helped inspire the animal-rights movement. Both Animal Liberation and Practical Ethics (1979), one of the most widely used textbooks in applied ethics, have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is editor of In Defense of Animals. The Second Wave, published this year by Blackpool Publishing
A laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and recipient of World Technology Network’s Ethics Award, Singer is co-founder and chair of The Great Ape Project, an international effort to obtain basic rights for chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, and president of Animal Rights International.
The Ethics Project, directed by George Panichas, professor and head of philosophy, involves the efforts of faculty in all divisions of the College. It fosters both an interest in and a concern for sound moral analysis and reasoning and encourages their application to a full range of contemporary problems. The project sponsors talks, seminars for faculty whose courses include ethics components, and related activities. Funding is provided by an endowment established by the late Louise M. Olmsted and her husband, Robert Olmsted.